Pages

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Ryan Returns and an announcement

There was quite a bit happening in the last month but I didn't really write about any of it for one very important fact:

My husband was gone.

Ryan with the kids at the Easter Egg Hunt shortly before he left

The Internet can be a strange place and other than a few mentions on Facebook, I really tried not to broadcast that the kids and I were alone in Ohio for about 4 or 5 weeks.

But now Ryan is back!

Why did he leave?

After graduation we were trying to get an extension to stay until the end of the kids' school year. After exhausting all opportunities, it didn't happen. Ryan had to report to our next base in San Antonio. He would be missing Alanna's birthday and Easter... but he would come back in May to help with the pack out and then we all drive down to Texas together. The goal was for him to get down there and find us a place to live...

Which he did.

This brings me to my announcement: We are buying a house! Whoot! This seems like a surreal thing and I don't even feel that I'm old enough to take this on because it's such an adult thing to do. But, Ryan searched and searched with the realtor. We did a LOT of research on the schools in the area. Eventually we found a house, put in an offer, accepted the counter offer and are on our way! Right now I'm not sure when we close... we've done all our paperwork so now we're waiting on the bank.

Out of the other houses in the neighborhood we chose this specific one because it had all the things we were wanting but it still has plenty of room for improvement and upgrades. The house is 7 years old and the backyard has never been put in... it's all just weeds and scrub and dirt.

Why are we choosing to buy a house? Well, if we live in base housing all of our BAH is taken. Any other additional bills come out of our pockets. The base housing we qualify for is all duplexes and as a family of 4 we would only get a 3 bedroom house. This isn't necessarily a bad thing... but we can do better.

If we rent offbase we can get more house for our money but we are also paying somebody else's mortgage. And it is luck of the draw if you get a good landlord or not.

We did some number crunching (rather, hubby did the number crunching) and we found that by buying a home, including the taxes, our monthly payment is quite a bit under our BAH which allows saving money for upgrades or repairs, and also provides money for utilities. When it's time to move we have an option to rent it out and continue mortgage payments that way, or sell and receive money back for what we paid into it.

So yeah, Ryan did a lot of searching. We spent a lot of time on the phone and I was constantly looking online at the new houses put on the market. And by the way, San Antonio has a HOT housing market. At least twice we found a home we wanted to put a bid on only to be told it sold that morning.

Anyway, since it took us a long time to decide on a home we agreed to move our pack-out dates. Now we're leaving Ohio the first week of June instead of... ummm... last week.

There have been many things happening and even more things still to come!

Congratulations! I'm happy to see that you did all of the necessary homework too. Getting the right deal is important in this type of transaction, so you are sure that your money is well-spent. I hope you guys close in on that deal soon. I think you can't wait to transform that backyard into something more awesome than weeds and dirt! Cheers!

An Air Force wife and stay-at-home mom to two young children and a dog. Former Navy Brat and call Washington State home. These are the glimpses into my life -- the military, a son with a severe speech disorder, my hobbies, my opinions, and our travels as we take in the world around us.